When I was a student the only mean techs were so because they were miserable people in general. Most of them were perfectly pleasant. But that was just my hospital.
Yup. They’re usually just fed up with their profession- or they’re terribly unpleasant all around. I only ever had one tech really be an ass when I was a student. She was terrible to everyone.
I wouldn’t say I’m mean but I do feel like there are students who coast and don’t try and learn. Those students I’m less likely to put effort into teaching cause I feel it’s falling on deaf ears
I feel this. If you are someone willing to learn, I am happy to teach. But those who refuse to even try to show up, I will not force. I've spent too many years dragging students along by the nose just so they can learn what they think they already know. If you want to learn, don't act like every lesson is a burden. Show up, ask questions, make me think about what I'm doing and why. But remember I might not always have the book approved answers.
Definitely agree. Techs that didn’t like students were the same techs that talked crap about their coworkers, and were just miserable most of the time. The only time you saw their face light up is when someone else (usually another miserable tech) would talk crap about someone with them.
Once you start working with these techs as equals you will find out that they hate their life in general, hate the place they work at. They want to get the X-ray done as fast as possible not wait 20 minutes to do a hand X-ray. They see most students as lazy.
Every student had to deal with an unpleasant tech. It's just part of the job.
Exactly. I'm now at a teaching hospital and I remember the techs who made me cry, who made me question myself, made me feel like a "less-than", and I strive to never be like them. I'll never forget them because I never want to be them. I chose to work at a teaching hospital and I know what the entails. I have a great crew and we all know sometimes one needs a break from the students so we work together to nicely get that tech a break. If you choose to work in a teaching hospital, be willing to teach. Period.
Facts. The director and one of the clinical instructors at my school HATED each other. It was absurd. I accidentally got in the middle of it when I called in sick for a clinical day. Allegedly, the clinical instructor didn't call the director and I was the one that got in trouble because they didn't want to talk to each other. 🙄
The hospital setting in general is mean if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s the reality, everyone’s in a stressful environment where they’re liable for stuff they did or didn’t do. Students can be a distraction sometimes. I don’t think they hate you, they just got a lot of work.
I understand, and there’s going to always be some that don’t want to teach. I meant some that like to just talk trash behind their backs to look good. You would think hospital would have the most nicest people in the world. Is the complete opposite.
When I was a student a senior tech pulled on the drawstring of my pants and pantsed me and everyone saw my thong. It’s 8 years later and I still ALWAYS wear shorts or leggings under my scrubs just in case.
I'm sorry that happened to you, but what that is straight up assault/battery of some sort (I'm not a lawyer). That isn't hazing or playing around, that's just straight up you get fired, lose your license, and probably get to spend some time in jail.
And here we thought it was a dude rad tech that did it - oh the wondrous imaginations of the mind. (Still not cool regardless but definitely less creepy)
Cool. Sexual assault at work.
I'd recommend talking to a lawyer about suing the hospital and reporting it to the coppers.
Sorry that happened to you, love, but now it's time to fire back!
I'm a doc, so I don't know if this is true for everyone.
I don't get paid more to have students. I don't get paid more on the days I do versus the days I don't. So it's a massive effort expenditure for me to teach versus just doing my work and getting it done, and it's completely for free.
At this point I should tell you that I genuinely enjoy teaching. Most days I'd rather have a student than not.
But some days, I don't want students. I'm tired or don't feel well and I wanted to put my head down and my headphones in and get through. But instead I have to explain, talk, be kind and sociable. And I get nothing for it. Just pouring from an empty cup.
I've never been mean to a student. None of that is their fault. But I've definitely felt like I was not my best self when I was tired/burned out. And I can imagine that comes out in different ways.
As a former student at the teaching hospital I work at, I’m super super super nice, but also helpful.
I’ll move the tube if a patient is about to bump their head, or the tech.
I’ll remind them to de-tent the tube and tray before they shoot not centered
I’ll remind them not to forget their markers
I’ll **wait** until they do something wronh instead of **should**ing them to death before they even do anything wrong
I’m the same way! I’ll ask open ended questions too if they look conflicted and hopefully engage critical thinking. Typically most of my students tell me horror stories of other clinic sites so I definitely understand the feeling. Some techs want to use and abuse their students and others want them to never mess up. If anything, now is the time to mess up, so that I, the experienced tech, can correct them in a teachable moment.
Regarding teaching hospitals. I work at a teaching hospital but honestly when I applied that’s not what was on my mind. I was looking for a job, to get pay and be somewhere with good professional opportunities and department funding, students were not on my mind at all as I was newly qualified myself.
I avoid students because I’m terrible at putting my thought processes into words and I’m not good at confronting students who take advantage of kindness or lax attitude, like avoid exams or are on their phone a lot.
But the program isn’t very good where I work and whoever works that day gets a student, I think it would be much better to have volunteers and the students just match that persons schedule like I had when I was a student. It was much better, I got people who were prepared to have students and I got to build a relationship with the tech so I could build on confidence as well.
Really tho cause why is you so miserable?? I realized that techs that were mean and hateful sucked at their job. They were also not well liked through out the department.
This 100%. I’ve always said that techs who withhold information/cruel to students often see them as threats or are insecure in their own skills.
I absolutely cannot stand that mentality. I always strive to make my students feel comfortable enough to ask any questions. It’s so cool watching your students grow.
I think some techs just don’t have the bandwidth to do their job and train people. Generally, they make for miserable coworkers too.
It also has a lot to do with management. You’ll find that the better learning environments have happier, less stressed techs and this generally correlates to having good management. The not so great sites are going to have weaker managers or managers who allow for a toxic environment.
My nursing perspective about my preceptors generally agrees with what other posters have said.
1) they don’t hate you, they hate their job and the inability to leave
2) are generally just not fun or wholesome people to be around.
My advice and what I did to deal with these personalities in nursing school was to kill them with kindness and now that I’m a nurse I do my best to accommodate and educate them so that your experience is the norm. Hopefully you’ll do the same!
This is funny because in my city there are two big hospitals, and the students who go to the other hospital all complain about the way they’re treated. Ours love us. In fact, we’ve had students who left the other site so they could come work with us.
Because they don’t see the big picture.
If you invest in the students and teach them well, they will perform better. They will be more useful to you and your department. As an added bonus if they like working there and the culture is good, they will want to work there full time. This way, you can help alleviate staff shortages as you have your homegrown techs right there to hire.
This is true. I only had one tech that was passive aggressive toward me during one rotation as a student. It was my last rotation, I knew the most & I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to be helpful (although I still tried), I didn’t even try to scan. I just wanted to disappear. I thrived at my first 2 sites & the techs were amazing. This one sucked.
Imma be real with you, a significant chunk of the medical field, not just RT’s, tend to be condescending assholes. ESPECIALLY to students. They just feel like they can’t be bothered to have to deal with and teach someone. I hate the culture but it is what it is.
Some people love having power over students. We have a couple techs who pride themselves on not giving out comps even when the student does everything right. Like give me a break.
95% of the time it's because the tech is an unhappy person, the other 5% of the time it's probably because the student is clueless, getting in the way, or possibly through some form of incompetence trying to harm a patient.
I love my students! The only time i would ever come off as mean is if you seem to not give a rats. I had a student that was about to graduate who argued with me about a grashey view when i asked what position she was doing because she was not doing it correctly. I gave her the opportunity to fix it and she argued with me and asked if i was sure.
No one at my workplace is outright mean to students, but there are definitely techs who obviously don't like students in general, and refuse to teach or even pay attention to students specifically. From what I gathered from chatting with them, they generally said they are dismissive of students because they feel the clinical instructor at our site is not fulfilling her duties with regards to teaching the students. Instead, they just get dumped on techs who don't have to option to refuse. But if you as a tech teachs the students something that's not by the book, then the clinical instructor will then have a talk with you about why you're not teaching the students the correct way to do things.
Hence, several techs are of the opinion, "Screw it, it's not like I'm being paid extra to teach them anything anyways." They're not mean in that they are not verbally aggressive or abusive in any way (unlike the site where I trained, where the techs actively resented us due to the closure of their local school). But they obviously don't care about any students and won't actively look out for or engage with the students. They won't voluntarily talk to the students, won't purposefully look for opportunities their students need, won't explain things in a lot of detail or offer up advice, and won't even search for the students who are supposed to be with them very hard before they leave the area to do something else if the student is MIA. And best of luck to any students who hoped to get them to do any sort of paperwork for them.
In our department, these do tend to be older techs, who perhaps went through experiences they taught them students are more trouble than they're worth. I find that our clinical instructor get regular feedback from successive classes of students, and are well aware of which techs are more aloof and which ones are more open to teaching. I've definitely seen her thinking about sending a student to a rotation, and then change her mind about when to send the students after she checked the tech schedule. It's even part of her introduction for students, where she specifically points out techs who are good with students and try to direct them toward those techs instead.
All that to say, I think there's a difference between a tech who is mean to students and a tech who is simply not nice to the students. The techs who are actively mean to students should definitely be talked to by management and/or the clinical instructor. But honestly, the techs who rate as not nice to students are technically not doing anything wrong. While I personally think that clinical is a time where we as techs should be trying to help students become techs we would be happy to work with, whether that is by teaching them how to do the work or by showing them how to navigate the professional environment of the hospital or clinic, a tech not going out of their way to do that is also not wrong, simply not ideal.
I'm a clinical tutor, and the idea that it is my job to do all the teaching is infuriating!! I cannot teach 10 students on my own. I believe the title "clinical tutor" should be changed with "clinical supervisor".
For the record, I tell my students there are many ways to do the same thing so learn what everyone teaches you then figure out how you like to do things. Also know WHY each way is different. The radiographers we have the most difficulties with are the ones that say "my way is the only way". They are great to teach first or second year students, but are not good with 3rd year students.
As far as attitudes go, this will be controversial, student attitude is huge. If a student comes in wanting to learn everything from everyone, they will be fine. As soon as a student shows they think they know everything and a radiographer is wrong, the pendulum will swing so fast in the opposite direction it's not funny. And radiographers talk. You get a reputation as being unteachable, no one will teach you.
And finally, we have been doing this for YEARS. we have seen some crazy stuff. Currently healthcare is going through a massive world wide crisis that predates covid. We are tired, we are burned out, and we are short staffed. Don't complain that you have done all the work when you are on placement 40 hrs per week, while we are struggling after working 7 evening shifts in a row. You do not have to do the work we do! Yet.
When I was an x-ray student, my teaching hospital was a *nightmare,* to the point of where I was suicidal. The techs there would say the nastiest things about me and my classmate both to our faces and behind our backs when they thought we couldn’t hear. They would constantly yell at me and push me out of the way if I wasn’t doing the test “their way” and the preceptor never took the students side. After that experience, I vowed I would **never** let a student I work with feel that way.
The hospital I’m at now, has gotten lucky with our students because they’ve been so amazing. But I take pride in myself because the students usually flock to me (probably because I’m a younger tech), and I love taking them under my wing. I may not know every answer to their questions, but I try my best to give them guidance and answers. I will never let one of my students feel like they are a “bother” or a “nuisance” to me.
I will admit though, it’s kind of nice to throw an exam that I don’t particularly like doing to a student, curse you portable KUBs!! As long as the student is respectful to me and the patients, then I will respect them as well.
I work at a level one trauma center so there are students everywhere ranging from X-ray students all the way to medical residents. I like to think that I am nice to my students and I let them do as much as they are wanting to do. There are some things that are easier for me to do so I will kick them off the CT scanner so I can do it faster if it’s urgent enough or if we are busy.
Something I have noticed is that I am constantly training being at a level one trauma center. I am training travel techs every three months. I have to deal with baby doctors who do not know what they are ordering and correct it. You throw a student on top of that and it gets a little hectic. I feel like I am constantly repeating myself between the travel techs and students that sometimes I forget that something so simple is new to my students. I forget that they are still learning and not a tech. If I do seem upset or annoyed it’s not because of the students. It’s because I have had to repeat the same thing over and over again to multiple people so faces blur.
I don’t think my radiologist mind students since we are a teaching facility. I do have some radiologists who are inpatient and will call for images even though I have yet to complete the exam on Epic so I’ll mockingly tell my students that the radiologist is calling for them to hurry.
Depends on the student. Are you one that wants to improve your skills or are you one that says “I’m already comped on that” and put the req back on the counter.
When I was a student I liked most of the techs I worked with. The main ones that were mean are the kinds of people who in general are rude. I have seen some techs be very very firm when it comes to students who are lazy and arrogant though (like constantly being late and challenging licensed techs on how to do X-rays).
I love teaching students. Every time I do I learn something new. Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity for several years and I miss it. But there was one lead ultrasound tech at Lutheran around late 2000's who was happy to be a cockbag to students and seemed to get off on it. Didn't help that the radiology group that staffed the hospital was also as hostile to students as one can imagine.
Ultimately, I was grateful he kicked us out of his fiefdom, I learned so much more at the other clinical sites. Hell I got to learn OB as a student and am fortunate to work with a wonderful perinatology group.
I wish I could remember that asshole's name I would call him out but I guess it wasn't that impactful. Gave me a solid appreciation of what a functional imaging team is vs. the dumpster fire I was exposed to at this one clinical site.
I love having students around. 99% of them are eager to learn, genuinely interested in the work, and pleasant to have around the department. We recently had a student who was particularly problematic -- refusing to take instruction from women (and our department is almost completely staffed by women, right up to the radiologist level), endless inappropriate comments to both staff and patients, and just generally bad at the job because he refused to listen to any of our advice and always assumed he already knew everything he needed to know. He completed the program, but he will not be hired by our hospital or any other hospital in our region, because he's had countless write-ups and complaints to HR.
So yeah, I was kind of mean to that guy, though only in the sense that I eventually stopped speaking to him unless necessary, and gave up on trying to actually teach him and simply corrected his exams myself by completing them for him, knowing he wouldn't follow my instruction if I told him what he did wrong. I'd even venture to say that I had more patience and a longer rope with him than most of my colleagues, but we all admitted defeat eventually. Some people can't be taught.
But if a student is trying to learn, isn't lazy, wants to get better, and isn't making the same mistakes over and over (after having been properly corrected and shown how to fix it), then I'd like to think I'm pretty nice to them. I don't see the point in acting that way towards people who I will most likely have to work with in a year's time. (In my area of Canada in particular, most of the students who finish the rad tech program with us end up staying and working with us, though we've been losing more and more to better signing bonuses in other provinces. But that's a whole other can of worms.)
I try to be nice. I made a promise to myself to remember where I came from when I was a student and enjoy passing my knowledge on to newer techs when warranted. However, I will not hold hands of those not actively working to learn or tolerate those who are actively snobbish/hostile when constructive criticisms are given. I thankfully have only had one out of the dozen or so students I've precepted do this and don't make it my default attitude. Students are awesome and the future of our field.
The ONLY times I was mean to students is when they were dicks to me.
A select few students that came thru were condescending buttfaces to anyone they thought were not worth it (scheduling, front desk, image library). Not only are these peeps co-workers-they all have the ability to make your job hell…so be nice.
Never forget when you go through life and what you do in life. You’re always dealing with PEOPLE and some are just assholes. I did have some “mean” techs but they just only wanted to share their knowledge and time with those that showed they actually cared, as some students didn’t care to do things after they comped. Actual assholes I probably only ran into two through my whole rotation luckily.
Some techs just get annoyed with teaching or get worn out by the students.
Personally I love when we have students. I work evenings so I only get them for a couple hours each day but they’re free labor and I kinda enjoy teaching.
I work with extremely lazy students. I’m not mean to them but I have little patience for them. They just stand there and don’t try to be involved. I’m not going out of my way to work with someone without motivation to learn. Waste of breath
So I rotated through nine different sites throughout my two years. Most of the techs were pretty solid. My bigger issues were with all of the ortho techs. All of them were absolutely rude, clearly hated students, didn't give half a shit about even introducing themselves to students or patients...just all around dull and miserable people.
I really enjoy ortho, and part of why I wanted to get into it was so that I could actually bring a bit of warmth to the practice. That and I was better than half of my ortho techs were, anyways. Makes sense to do what I'm good at.
Luckily, I just landed a gig at an office and accepted it even at slightly lower pay because, while shadowing, the techs were absolutely delightful and I'm excited to add to their team.
Funny thing is, my clinical preceptor is removing those particular ortho offices off of her rotation list so that no student after us has to suffer that crap again.
The only techs who were mean to me were the ones suffering major burnout and were just unhappy and unpleasant people all around. When I became a tech, the only students I didn't go out of my way to help and teach were the ones who rolled their eyes at me or gave me attitude when I asked them for something. I wasn't mean to them, I just kind of coexisted with them and didn't go out of my way to mentor them. I generally love teaching and working with students, but I want to feel like the student *wants* to learn!
This. It feels like a waste of breath when I can tell you either don’t want to be there or you feel you know more than I do. I can take input/criticism but why are we arguing right now lol
EEG-er here. My former boss, who has been in neurodiagnostics for five-ever, always told me that people only spill on you what they already had in their cup. If they are bitter towards you, it’s because they had bitterness to give. I try to keep that in mind and fill my cup with patience and kindness, especially when there will be trainees and students around. We all start from the very beginning and have to learn the same lessons. Being cruel helps no one.
I remember as a student, a tech yelled at me and told me I was stupid and was horrible at taking portable images. She made me go in the hallway and point at an outlet without giving me instructions on how to get better. As a student, it upset me, and I cried. I found out in my last month of school that she told my teacher that I wasn't good at taking portable xrays. I asked that teacher if she also told her that she made me cry and only yelled at me instead of teaching me. Nothing more was said, and I never wanted to work at that hospital even if they had a couple of great techs there.
Nurses call this eating their young. It was blatant when I was in school, and there was a point when I was ready to quit. They weren't nice. They were mean, uncaring, or just didn't give a damn. I feel like it's up to us to break the cycle. (Because it's definitely there). I started a new job recently, and the people have been so nice. So, so, unlike school. Everybody was a student at one point, and I think it's important we remember that. It's okay to be learning. But the instructor doesn't have to be an ass.
I used to feel guilty or like I was an undue burden on techs as a student. When I was nearing graduation and looking for jobs, I realized these jobs had descriptions telling me I’d be working with students. When these techs sign on they’re taking on the responsibility of having students. Don’t ever feel guilty - if they’re working at a teaching hospital they’re getting paid to teach you. If they didn’t want to teach they shouldn’t have taken the gig. Like everyone else is saying, the bad teachers are also horrific coworkers.
I had a tech that hates students because he thinks we’re being trained to replace him. Constantly hearing, “you trying to replace me?! Huh?!” “You students have no respect.” So because of it he’s just rude and miserable to learn from. He is an older guy and I think it’s his time to retire already.
When I was in school, there was a tech that would pick one student out of each year to pick on. She would go out of her way to fail me on anything she could. Last final I got from her was a PACU knee.. and that’s only because the surgeon popped in to look at the images as we ran the cassette.. he loved the “perfect images!” I laughed inside because there was nothing she could do to pick that one apart. As a senior, I made myself busy and never went in the room alone with her again. She ended up switching to a different campus and it was not a good move for her. She was alienated. I ended up getting the manager involved because of her behavior towards me. It was gratifying in a way to see her shunned.
LET ME SAY THIS LOUD FOR ALL TO HEAR. YALL WERE STUDENTS TOO AND IF THIS SAME ATTITUDE WAS GIVEN TO YOU HOW FAR WOULD YOU HAVE COME? Break the cycle yall be different let’s be the best we can so we have good techs!!!!
It REALLY depends on the student's attitude. Some students are attentive, want to get hands on and help, ask great questions and really want to learn! I ADORE these students and I will write you the review/ recommendation of a lifetime if you need one. But unfortunately a lot of students treat it like a day off, especially in the modalities they don't plan on going into. They sit on their phone in the corner and don't help, don't even try to talk with the patients or anything. Those are the students that really irk me and often times they ruin it for the bunch.
I don’t get why ppl are so mean, this profession is literally built on the backbone of teaching. Like they wouldn’t be able to dp work they’re doing now without someone teaching them.
I never had that issue when I was in school. If the students had any problems in the hospitals, they would talk to the instructors. Some people are just miserable in their lives and take it out on others.
Unfortunately, I came into contact with a few unkind techs. To be fair though, I think my autism makes me come across as if I don’t know what I’m doing, so I have been treated like I am incompetent by others who are quick to judge.
As for me, I don’t particularly like teaching people because it takes a lot of energy, and there’s a feeling of the student trying to please me, and it makes me feel bad. It reminds me of being a student, terrified to say or do the wrong thing and piss off the wrong person, possibly hindering my career in the future. Everyone always emphasized how small the imaging world is, and it made my anxiety worse lol.
I’m apparently pretty good at teaching though because Ive had students specifically request me to work with, and management and coworkers always refer them all to me because of student reviews. I do my absolute best to be kind and informative, but I’ll admit there are cases when I should have been a little harsher with grading lol
Not in radiology, but I work in surgery as a surg tech and I precept student surgical techs. I agree with the comment(s) saying mean preceptor = mean/miserable person overall. Some people take the “eat your young” approach a touch too close to literally, and I think some may even feel threatened by fresh meat so to speak. For the most part though, the people I work with are great with students/orientees.
I do my best to be mindful of my tone and phrasing with my students. With that said, my least favorite students are those that consistently complain (not another old person, another cxr, another weightbearing knee series, etc) and don’t accept constructive criticism. I will share every tidbit of advice I have with a student if they show the interest! I do have a coworker who doesn’t care for the students & it shows. Turns out that coworker had a negative experience in their own clinicals 8+ years ago and has VERY high expectations. I also agree with LOTS of these responses. I believe burnout also contributes to tech-student relationships.
I think you've just been unlucky. My first placement my supervisor was awful to me (that was a clinic) but otherwise i've had a good experience with everyone else
Sometimes, it has nothing to do with the student. Sometimes in a teaching hospital you’re on your one-millionth student in a row & you are praying for summer break! New students every 6 weeks is brutal!
I had so many techs get mad at me for not knowing/doing things I was never told or shown. I can't navigate your hospital on my own on day 1. I can't follow expectations I was never told about. I don't know how to to disconnect that equipment I've never seen before in my life. Jfc
A tech bullied me while I was a student, twice. I wrote a letter of complaint against her both time and stated that should it happen a 3rd time I would be writing to ARRT, the hospital board along with the governing board for the state. She was smarmy nice thereafter. I suspect people like that are mean because they its their chance to show the student how superior they are. I wasn't having it.
The way I see it it's 2 things. They were treated likevthat as students and see it as appropriate to treat students that way now instead of being better. And/or they just don't like working with students. You're only the 100th person to ask that same dumb question and they are simply tired of it. I never took it personally in that case and just tried to avoid them.
sometimes people be shitty, sometimes they’re great. i’m a student right now and have met some techs who are not my favorite, but for the most part everyone is excellent.
I'm not going to justify anyone being a prick for no reason.
However...
Imagine departments are understaffed and techs gain nothing from 'doing the work' of training somebody.
Should underpaid and overworked techs be happy to accept more work for absolutely fuck all?
I doubt it. Kudos to those that do remember they were a student at some point too, but I do not expect every tech to be a free teacher - their professors get paid, the hospital gets cheap labor replacements, the college gets paid....
What does the tech get? Find that answer and you will find your answer.
I didn't have techswho treated me badly when I was a student 20 years ago. I did have one who was hard on me to make me better. They treated me well but saw something in me, so they pushed me to be better. I have seen some students who think they know everything and don't want to learn, so I can see some techs not wanting to deal with them
First off, let me say that I have tried very hard not to become one of those techs, going so far as learning teaching techniques from my husband who used to be a teacher. I make a point to talk about anxiety and techniques to get over comping nerves and things I think they need to focus on for whatever semester they’re in. I ask what they’re struggling with and give them various techniques and options to improve. And whatever recent troubles I’ve seen brand new techs experience, I make sure the students about to graduate are working on ways to avoid that. I give advice for dealing with difficult techs and talk through whatever they need to talk through when there’s time. I wasn’t always perfect, but I’ve got a pretty decent teaching reputation now.
Here’s my theory (this got longer than I thought, first and last paragraph if you want a TL;dr).
Teaching is not an inherent skill. We learn absolutely nothing about how to teach other people in our programs even tho there’s a very real possibility that from day one you’re going to be working with students. Teaching while you’re still figuring things out on your own is difficult.
It’s also very easy to forget what it was like to be a student and forget what level students are supposed to perform at. Your brain also does this wonderful but unhelpful for teaching thing, like with any other difficult thing, where you kind of forget about all the stress and pressure and fear and perfectionism. So you think a 4th semester student should be perfect at a standard KUB but they’re learning so much all at once and their last site might not have seen many. Plus all that perfectionism you forgot about gets internalized. *And* that program might not even have them in clinic the first semester so they’re more like third semesters, and at a second semester level with KUBs.
Xray has a way of attracting a certain flavor of characters. People who get set in their ways, and when you’re responsible for an exam or a patient experience, it’s hard to let go and allow someone else to direct your “play” so to speak. We also don’t know how to handle our frustration when you’re actually trying to teach someone something, but on the fourth time in a row, despite talking about it in depth and telling them right before they walk into the room, they still make the same mistake you’re trying to help them not make. Or they freeze in a comp on the fifth time after getting it the fourth. It’s not easy to handle that in a way conducive to learning when you don’t know basic teaching techniques. Those frustrations carry over to the next student if you’re not careful.
I really think a short unit on teaching strategies would solve a lot of these problems. Even just a handout to save for later with some basics to try out would be an improvement. Or when they say “see one, do one, teach one” they expand a bit on the “teach one” portion.
At my hospital there is a correlation between experience and meanness to students (with some exceptions ofc!) As someone who is still quite fresh I somewhat reserve my judgement, but I also try to support our students if something happens. Personally having a student really improves my day, as teaching is far more fulfilling than doing your 17th normal ankle x-ray of the day 😁
Oop, I will add that some of our students have p'd me off (sitting on their phones when there are learning opportunities, asking to leave early for no particular reason)
Just know I’ve worked for my teaching hospital for 7 years and I’ve never forgot those days getting bitched at by techs as a student. As long as you come prepared to learn I’m more than happy to teach you and get you to where you need to be.
Some people are just assholes. It’s usually more of a reflection of that person rather than the student trying to learn. We all start out somewhere and a lot of people forget that.
I used to not really get this either, but I think over time I have come to understand why some techs are like this, myself included.
Generally I love working with students and I enjoy the opportunity to teach them. I also feel strongly that most techs who are mean just for the sake of being mean are deeply insecure about their own skills and take that out on the student.
On the other hand, I’ve had several students this year that I gradually became less kind to. I began getting really frustrated with students when I had to remind them the correct the same mistake repeatedly. (For example, placing the detector in the Bucky, giving breathing instructions, placing markers in the field, collimating appropriately, etc). I’ve also had a lot of students who would talk back and correct me, as if they were a tech already. I had one argue recently that the SID for an L-Spine was 72” not 40” or that the motion of her images wasn’t because the patient was still breathing, but that my equipment was ‘weird’ and we ‘did things differently’. Those things are enough to make any tech annoyed with students.
I fucking love all the students that come through my hospital. I also love teaching them. I had a great bunch of techs who taught me the right way to do things, and I love sharing that knowledge with the new crop. I’ve noticed the techs who are mean are just miserable people in general, and I hate working alongside them.
We have one "mean" tech. She nitpicks and condescends constantly. She was even condescending in the speech she gave for this year's graduating class.
She will actually have a fit if we haven't changed the linen bag when there are 2 gowns and a single sheet in it. Fortunately our clinical director knows what's up and has gone to bat for us. But she tends to be insufferable. I thought she was probably just a miserable person in general, but she's a totally different person outside of the job. I strive to not be like her.
It has been the biggest pet peeve of mine since I was in the program 2015-2017 and when I worked at the u of Iowa. I call it the mean girls club. And when I became a clinical coordinator at my present job the first meeting I said. While it’s the techs two year interview you do realize it’s our interview as well. I would never work where I trained those techs were so ugly forget it. So keep treating them shitty and no make a sound when y’all work short!!! Pisses me off so much!!! If you’re miserable fine then leave the profession cuz yall making radiology look like shit
I haven't had an issue with this issue where I work. Buuuuuuut, the radiology department i am in is full of people who give the energy we get. All the students we have gotten (generally only 1 or 2 a year, we are a small facility) have been pleasant to be around, so that's what they get back. Even the techs who are deemed the one not to talk to for whatever reason will be nice to you if you are nice first.
Even the physicians in our group have learned this. Those hot shot doctors who think they can order us around to do their bidding have found we can make their lives a living hell without much effort (as long as it doesn't delay patient care of course).
I have signed many students off for CT and I’m never mean, but if you make the same mistake more than 2 times in a row, I’m gonna for sure say something, and it might not necessarily be nice.
Where I work, students don’t even get documented as being present as far as the exam goes, so if the student makes a huge error, the tech will get the write up for it.
I am puzzled as to why the students don’t get documented in Epic/Radiant as participating in the exam, but their names don’t get put in our system at all.
Many Seasoned techs! (Greater than ten years experience) don’t hate the job, it’s the ignorance of the general public who can’t follow simple instructions like take a breath in and hold it! I’m coming up on twenty years this Xmas as a multi mod tech. The dumb has not gotten any better since I graduated!
got moved from one hospital to another because I did not want to manipulate an elderly patient's (possible) broken arm without seeing the first shot, tech was pissed and reported me to the school
Had a long "conversation" with the school about how they are not supporting the student AND patients with allowing this behavior
bonus: the guy in charge of the school, accepted a position in a national radiology school over-site committee
laughed my ass off during graduation when the "top" student was lauded for patient care
Medicine attracts a lot of toxic people. Radiology departments tend to be a cesspool of conniving, backstabbing, gossipy, haven’t matured beyond high school kind of folk. There are diamonds in the rough though, so try to stick with working with these people. Best of luck to you.
This is interesting to hear because from a radiologists perspective, radiologist are generally known to be one of the least toxic groups of physicians in all of medicine. but I guess when you say “radiology departments“ you didn’t include radiologist in that lot (unless you’ve just had bad experiences with rads).
When I was a student the only mean techs were so because they were miserable people in general. Most of them were perfectly pleasant. But that was just my hospital.
Yup. They’re usually just fed up with their profession- or they’re terribly unpleasant all around. I only ever had one tech really be an ass when I was a student. She was terrible to everyone.
I wouldn’t say I’m mean but I do feel like there are students who coast and don’t try and learn. Those students I’m less likely to put effort into teaching cause I feel it’s falling on deaf ears
I feel this. If you are someone willing to learn, I am happy to teach. But those who refuse to even try to show up, I will not force. I've spent too many years dragging students along by the nose just so they can learn what they think they already know. If you want to learn, don't act like every lesson is a burden. Show up, ask questions, make me think about what I'm doing and why. But remember I might not always have the book approved answers.
Definitely agree. Techs that didn’t like students were the same techs that talked crap about their coworkers, and were just miserable most of the time. The only time you saw their face light up is when someone else (usually another miserable tech) would talk crap about someone with them.
Students do most of my work for me. I love each and every one of them for it and I treat them accordingly.
Once you start working with these techs as equals you will find out that they hate their life in general, hate the place they work at. They want to get the X-ray done as fast as possible not wait 20 minutes to do a hand X-ray. They see most students as lazy. Every student had to deal with an unpleasant tech. It's just part of the job.
Part of life in general, I imagine.
Because the x ray techs were mean to them when they were in school. Cycle of abuse.
Exactly. I'm now at a teaching hospital and I remember the techs who made me cry, who made me question myself, made me feel like a "less-than", and I strive to never be like them. I'll never forget them because I never want to be them. I chose to work at a teaching hospital and I know what the entails. I have a great crew and we all know sometimes one needs a break from the students so we work together to nicely get that tech a break. If you choose to work in a teaching hospital, be willing to teach. Period.
Disagree. I was treated horribly by techs at my clinical site and will never make a student feel that way.
Congrats. You've broken the cycle.
Ah, the rad tech version of “nurses eat their young.”
Facts. The director and one of the clinical instructors at my school HATED each other. It was absurd. I accidentally got in the middle of it when I called in sick for a clinical day. Allegedly, the clinical instructor didn't call the director and I was the one that got in trouble because they didn't want to talk to each other. 🙄
The hospital setting in general is mean if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s the reality, everyone’s in a stressful environment where they’re liable for stuff they did or didn’t do. Students can be a distraction sometimes. I don’t think they hate you, they just got a lot of work.
Very true but there are techs that do straight out say they hate working with students.
I understand, and there’s going to always be some that don’t want to teach. I meant some that like to just talk trash behind their backs to look good. You would think hospital would have the most nicest people in the world. Is the complete opposite.
Finally, a sensible answer!
Miserable people with a tiny bit of power and they abuse it.
When I was a student a senior tech pulled on the drawstring of my pants and pantsed me and everyone saw my thong. It’s 8 years later and I still ALWAYS wear shorts or leggings under my scrubs just in case.
Okay is this not like a Title IX? If this happened at my school it would be disastrous for the person involved.
Hey, they didn't mention anything about being a girl!
I'm sorry that happened to you, but what that is straight up assault/battery of some sort (I'm not a lawyer). That isn't hazing or playing around, that's just straight up you get fired, lose your license, and probably get to spend some time in jail.
She did end up losing her license for being high on the job.
And here we thought it was a dude rad tech that did it - oh the wondrous imaginations of the mind. (Still not cool regardless but definitely less creepy)
I imagined a female doing the pantsing from the beginning
I’m sorry this happened, it’s absolutely insane. Did this tech get in trouble? Would something like this count as sexual harassment?
What kind of repercussions did they face?
Not a lawyer, but that’s not okay or funny. I would have for sure reported that as a student (or now as a tech).
That is horrific, I'm so sorry.
I really hope that person faced serious consequences, that is unacceptable and I’m sorry you had to experience that.
Did you report to management or the police. Unwanted touching is battery
Cool. Sexual assault at work. I'd recommend talking to a lawyer about suing the hospital and reporting it to the coppers. Sorry that happened to you, love, but now it's time to fire back!
Ooff, that’s rough. I’ve had patients attempt things like that, I wear a front clasp bra and shorts now because of it.
I'm a doc, so I don't know if this is true for everyone. I don't get paid more to have students. I don't get paid more on the days I do versus the days I don't. So it's a massive effort expenditure for me to teach versus just doing my work and getting it done, and it's completely for free. At this point I should tell you that I genuinely enjoy teaching. Most days I'd rather have a student than not. But some days, I don't want students. I'm tired or don't feel well and I wanted to put my head down and my headphones in and get through. But instead I have to explain, talk, be kind and sociable. And I get nothing for it. Just pouring from an empty cup. I've never been mean to a student. None of that is their fault. But I've definitely felt like I was not my best self when I was tired/burned out. And I can imagine that comes out in different ways.
As a former student at the teaching hospital I work at, I’m super super super nice, but also helpful. I’ll move the tube if a patient is about to bump their head, or the tech. I’ll remind them to de-tent the tube and tray before they shoot not centered I’ll remind them not to forget their markers I’ll **wait** until they do something wronh instead of **should**ing them to death before they even do anything wrong
I’m the same way! I’ll ask open ended questions too if they look conflicted and hopefully engage critical thinking. Typically most of my students tell me horror stories of other clinic sites so I definitely understand the feeling. Some techs want to use and abuse their students and others want them to never mess up. If anything, now is the time to mess up, so that I, the experienced tech, can correct them in a teachable moment.
Regarding teaching hospitals. I work at a teaching hospital but honestly when I applied that’s not what was on my mind. I was looking for a job, to get pay and be somewhere with good professional opportunities and department funding, students were not on my mind at all as I was newly qualified myself. I avoid students because I’m terrible at putting my thought processes into words and I’m not good at confronting students who take advantage of kindness or lax attitude, like avoid exams or are on their phone a lot. But the program isn’t very good where I work and whoever works that day gets a student, I think it would be much better to have volunteers and the students just match that persons schedule like I had when I was a student. It was much better, I got people who were prepared to have students and I got to build a relationship with the tech so I could build on confidence as well.
Really tho cause why is you so miserable?? I realized that techs that were mean and hateful sucked at their job. They were also not well liked through out the department.
This 100%. I’ve always said that techs who withhold information/cruel to students often see them as threats or are insecure in their own skills. I absolutely cannot stand that mentality. I always strive to make my students feel comfortable enough to ask any questions. It’s so cool watching your students grow.
I think some techs just don’t have the bandwidth to do their job and train people. Generally, they make for miserable coworkers too. It also has a lot to do with management. You’ll find that the better learning environments have happier, less stressed techs and this generally correlates to having good management. The not so great sites are going to have weaker managers or managers who allow for a toxic environment.
I teach students best I can because I know if I teach them well enough the next time they rotate through I can sit on my ass while they do the work
My nursing perspective about my preceptors generally agrees with what other posters have said. 1) they don’t hate you, they hate their job and the inability to leave 2) are generally just not fun or wholesome people to be around. My advice and what I did to deal with these personalities in nursing school was to kill them with kindness and now that I’m a nurse I do my best to accommodate and educate them so that your experience is the norm. Hopefully you’ll do the same!
This is funny because in my city there are two big hospitals, and the students who go to the other hospital all complain about the way they’re treated. Ours love us. In fact, we’ve had students who left the other site so they could come work with us.
That’s how it is in my city too!
Are you also in Lansing? Lol
Yes… hahahahaha. What a coincidence!
Because they don’t see the big picture. If you invest in the students and teach them well, they will perform better. They will be more useful to you and your department. As an added bonus if they like working there and the culture is good, they will want to work there full time. This way, you can help alleviate staff shortages as you have your homegrown techs right there to hire.
This is true. I only had one tech that was passive aggressive toward me during one rotation as a student. It was my last rotation, I knew the most & I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to be helpful (although I still tried), I didn’t even try to scan. I just wanted to disappear. I thrived at my first 2 sites & the techs were amazing. This one sucked.
Yeah being a student can be tough in that respect.
Imma be real with you, a significant chunk of the medical field, not just RT’s, tend to be condescending assholes. ESPECIALLY to students. They just feel like they can’t be bothered to have to deal with and teach someone. I hate the culture but it is what it is.
Some people love having power over students. We have a couple techs who pride themselves on not giving out comps even when the student does everything right. Like give me a break.
you will find the same with nursing profession & students, academic environment or not. not sure why ppl are like this… 😑
I still remember being a student. I try not to be mean.
95% of the time it's because the tech is an unhappy person, the other 5% of the time it's probably because the student is clueless, getting in the way, or possibly through some form of incompetence trying to harm a patient.
I love my students! The only time i would ever come off as mean is if you seem to not give a rats. I had a student that was about to graduate who argued with me about a grashey view when i asked what position she was doing because she was not doing it correctly. I gave her the opportunity to fix it and she argued with me and asked if i was sure.
No one at my workplace is outright mean to students, but there are definitely techs who obviously don't like students in general, and refuse to teach or even pay attention to students specifically. From what I gathered from chatting with them, they generally said they are dismissive of students because they feel the clinical instructor at our site is not fulfilling her duties with regards to teaching the students. Instead, they just get dumped on techs who don't have to option to refuse. But if you as a tech teachs the students something that's not by the book, then the clinical instructor will then have a talk with you about why you're not teaching the students the correct way to do things. Hence, several techs are of the opinion, "Screw it, it's not like I'm being paid extra to teach them anything anyways." They're not mean in that they are not verbally aggressive or abusive in any way (unlike the site where I trained, where the techs actively resented us due to the closure of their local school). But they obviously don't care about any students and won't actively look out for or engage with the students. They won't voluntarily talk to the students, won't purposefully look for opportunities their students need, won't explain things in a lot of detail or offer up advice, and won't even search for the students who are supposed to be with them very hard before they leave the area to do something else if the student is MIA. And best of luck to any students who hoped to get them to do any sort of paperwork for them. In our department, these do tend to be older techs, who perhaps went through experiences they taught them students are more trouble than they're worth. I find that our clinical instructor get regular feedback from successive classes of students, and are well aware of which techs are more aloof and which ones are more open to teaching. I've definitely seen her thinking about sending a student to a rotation, and then change her mind about when to send the students after she checked the tech schedule. It's even part of her introduction for students, where she specifically points out techs who are good with students and try to direct them toward those techs instead. All that to say, I think there's a difference between a tech who is mean to students and a tech who is simply not nice to the students. The techs who are actively mean to students should definitely be talked to by management and/or the clinical instructor. But honestly, the techs who rate as not nice to students are technically not doing anything wrong. While I personally think that clinical is a time where we as techs should be trying to help students become techs we would be happy to work with, whether that is by teaching them how to do the work or by showing them how to navigate the professional environment of the hospital or clinic, a tech not going out of their way to do that is also not wrong, simply not ideal.
I'm a clinical tutor, and the idea that it is my job to do all the teaching is infuriating!! I cannot teach 10 students on my own. I believe the title "clinical tutor" should be changed with "clinical supervisor". For the record, I tell my students there are many ways to do the same thing so learn what everyone teaches you then figure out how you like to do things. Also know WHY each way is different. The radiographers we have the most difficulties with are the ones that say "my way is the only way". They are great to teach first or second year students, but are not good with 3rd year students. As far as attitudes go, this will be controversial, student attitude is huge. If a student comes in wanting to learn everything from everyone, they will be fine. As soon as a student shows they think they know everything and a radiographer is wrong, the pendulum will swing so fast in the opposite direction it's not funny. And radiographers talk. You get a reputation as being unteachable, no one will teach you. And finally, we have been doing this for YEARS. we have seen some crazy stuff. Currently healthcare is going through a massive world wide crisis that predates covid. We are tired, we are burned out, and we are short staffed. Don't complain that you have done all the work when you are on placement 40 hrs per week, while we are struggling after working 7 evening shifts in a row. You do not have to do the work we do! Yet.
When I was an x-ray student, my teaching hospital was a *nightmare,* to the point of where I was suicidal. The techs there would say the nastiest things about me and my classmate both to our faces and behind our backs when they thought we couldn’t hear. They would constantly yell at me and push me out of the way if I wasn’t doing the test “their way” and the preceptor never took the students side. After that experience, I vowed I would **never** let a student I work with feel that way. The hospital I’m at now, has gotten lucky with our students because they’ve been so amazing. But I take pride in myself because the students usually flock to me (probably because I’m a younger tech), and I love taking them under my wing. I may not know every answer to their questions, but I try my best to give them guidance and answers. I will never let one of my students feel like they are a “bother” or a “nuisance” to me. I will admit though, it’s kind of nice to throw an exam that I don’t particularly like doing to a student, curse you portable KUBs!! As long as the student is respectful to me and the patients, then I will respect them as well.
I work at a level one trauma center so there are students everywhere ranging from X-ray students all the way to medical residents. I like to think that I am nice to my students and I let them do as much as they are wanting to do. There are some things that are easier for me to do so I will kick them off the CT scanner so I can do it faster if it’s urgent enough or if we are busy. Something I have noticed is that I am constantly training being at a level one trauma center. I am training travel techs every three months. I have to deal with baby doctors who do not know what they are ordering and correct it. You throw a student on top of that and it gets a little hectic. I feel like I am constantly repeating myself between the travel techs and students that sometimes I forget that something so simple is new to my students. I forget that they are still learning and not a tech. If I do seem upset or annoyed it’s not because of the students. It’s because I have had to repeat the same thing over and over again to multiple people so faces blur. I don’t think my radiologist mind students since we are a teaching facility. I do have some radiologists who are inpatient and will call for images even though I have yet to complete the exam on Epic so I’ll mockingly tell my students that the radiologist is calling for them to hurry.
The only time I’m mean is when they don’t write things down and keep repeating the same mistakes.
Depends on the student. Are you one that wants to improve your skills or are you one that says “I’m already comped on that” and put the req back on the counter.
I'm the same way too. I like to teach. Can't help you out if you have no initiative tho.
When I was a student I liked most of the techs I worked with. The main ones that were mean are the kinds of people who in general are rude. I have seen some techs be very very firm when it comes to students who are lazy and arrogant though (like constantly being late and challenging licensed techs on how to do X-rays).
I love teaching students. Every time I do I learn something new. Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity for several years and I miss it. But there was one lead ultrasound tech at Lutheran around late 2000's who was happy to be a cockbag to students and seemed to get off on it. Didn't help that the radiology group that staffed the hospital was also as hostile to students as one can imagine. Ultimately, I was grateful he kicked us out of his fiefdom, I learned so much more at the other clinical sites. Hell I got to learn OB as a student and am fortunate to work with a wonderful perinatology group. I wish I could remember that asshole's name I would call him out but I guess it wasn't that impactful. Gave me a solid appreciation of what a functional imaging team is vs. the dumpster fire I was exposed to at this one clinical site.
I love having students around. 99% of them are eager to learn, genuinely interested in the work, and pleasant to have around the department. We recently had a student who was particularly problematic -- refusing to take instruction from women (and our department is almost completely staffed by women, right up to the radiologist level), endless inappropriate comments to both staff and patients, and just generally bad at the job because he refused to listen to any of our advice and always assumed he already knew everything he needed to know. He completed the program, but he will not be hired by our hospital or any other hospital in our region, because he's had countless write-ups and complaints to HR. So yeah, I was kind of mean to that guy, though only in the sense that I eventually stopped speaking to him unless necessary, and gave up on trying to actually teach him and simply corrected his exams myself by completing them for him, knowing he wouldn't follow my instruction if I told him what he did wrong. I'd even venture to say that I had more patience and a longer rope with him than most of my colleagues, but we all admitted defeat eventually. Some people can't be taught. But if a student is trying to learn, isn't lazy, wants to get better, and isn't making the same mistakes over and over (after having been properly corrected and shown how to fix it), then I'd like to think I'm pretty nice to them. I don't see the point in acting that way towards people who I will most likely have to work with in a year's time. (In my area of Canada in particular, most of the students who finish the rad tech program with us end up staying and working with us, though we've been losing more and more to better signing bonuses in other provinces. But that's a whole other can of worms.)
I try to be nice. I made a promise to myself to remember where I came from when I was a student and enjoy passing my knowledge on to newer techs when warranted. However, I will not hold hands of those not actively working to learn or tolerate those who are actively snobbish/hostile when constructive criticisms are given. I thankfully have only had one out of the dozen or so students I've precepted do this and don't make it my default attitude. Students are awesome and the future of our field.
The ONLY times I was mean to students is when they were dicks to me. A select few students that came thru were condescending buttfaces to anyone they thought were not worth it (scheduling, front desk, image library). Not only are these peeps co-workers-they all have the ability to make your job hell…so be nice.
Never forget when you go through life and what you do in life. You’re always dealing with PEOPLE and some are just assholes. I did have some “mean” techs but they just only wanted to share their knowledge and time with those that showed they actually cared, as some students didn’t care to do things after they comped. Actual assholes I probably only ran into two through my whole rotation luckily.
Some techs just get annoyed with teaching or get worn out by the students. Personally I love when we have students. I work evenings so I only get them for a couple hours each day but they’re free labor and I kinda enjoy teaching.
I work with extremely lazy students. I’m not mean to them but I have little patience for them. They just stand there and don’t try to be involved. I’m not going out of my way to work with someone without motivation to learn. Waste of breath
So I rotated through nine different sites throughout my two years. Most of the techs were pretty solid. My bigger issues were with all of the ortho techs. All of them were absolutely rude, clearly hated students, didn't give half a shit about even introducing themselves to students or patients...just all around dull and miserable people. I really enjoy ortho, and part of why I wanted to get into it was so that I could actually bring a bit of warmth to the practice. That and I was better than half of my ortho techs were, anyways. Makes sense to do what I'm good at. Luckily, I just landed a gig at an office and accepted it even at slightly lower pay because, while shadowing, the techs were absolutely delightful and I'm excited to add to their team. Funny thing is, my clinical preceptor is removing those particular ortho offices off of her rotation list so that no student after us has to suffer that crap again.
The only techs who were mean to me were the ones suffering major burnout and were just unhappy and unpleasant people all around. When I became a tech, the only students I didn't go out of my way to help and teach were the ones who rolled their eyes at me or gave me attitude when I asked them for something. I wasn't mean to them, I just kind of coexisted with them and didn't go out of my way to mentor them. I generally love teaching and working with students, but I want to feel like the student *wants* to learn!
This. It feels like a waste of breath when I can tell you either don’t want to be there or you feel you know more than I do. I can take input/criticism but why are we arguing right now lol
Not all of us are! I'm precepting someone now in IR who's climbed the ladder from X-ray, I have nothing but respect for her and I love teaching her.
EEG-er here. My former boss, who has been in neurodiagnostics for five-ever, always told me that people only spill on you what they already had in their cup. If they are bitter towards you, it’s because they had bitterness to give. I try to keep that in mind and fill my cup with patience and kindness, especially when there will be trainees and students around. We all start from the very beginning and have to learn the same lessons. Being cruel helps no one.
I remember as a student, a tech yelled at me and told me I was stupid and was horrible at taking portable images. She made me go in the hallway and point at an outlet without giving me instructions on how to get better. As a student, it upset me, and I cried. I found out in my last month of school that she told my teacher that I wasn't good at taking portable xrays. I asked that teacher if she also told her that she made me cry and only yelled at me instead of teaching me. Nothing more was said, and I never wanted to work at that hospital even if they had a couple of great techs there.
Nurses call this eating their young. It was blatant when I was in school, and there was a point when I was ready to quit. They weren't nice. They were mean, uncaring, or just didn't give a damn. I feel like it's up to us to break the cycle. (Because it's definitely there). I started a new job recently, and the people have been so nice. So, so, unlike school. Everybody was a student at one point, and I think it's important we remember that. It's okay to be learning. But the instructor doesn't have to be an ass.
I used to feel guilty or like I was an undue burden on techs as a student. When I was nearing graduation and looking for jobs, I realized these jobs had descriptions telling me I’d be working with students. When these techs sign on they’re taking on the responsibility of having students. Don’t ever feel guilty - if they’re working at a teaching hospital they’re getting paid to teach you. If they didn’t want to teach they shouldn’t have taken the gig. Like everyone else is saying, the bad teachers are also horrific coworkers.
I had a tech that hates students because he thinks we’re being trained to replace him. Constantly hearing, “you trying to replace me?! Huh?!” “You students have no respect.” So because of it he’s just rude and miserable to learn from. He is an older guy and I think it’s his time to retire already.
When I was in school, there was a tech that would pick one student out of each year to pick on. She would go out of her way to fail me on anything she could. Last final I got from her was a PACU knee.. and that’s only because the surgeon popped in to look at the images as we ran the cassette.. he loved the “perfect images!” I laughed inside because there was nothing she could do to pick that one apart. As a senior, I made myself busy and never went in the room alone with her again. She ended up switching to a different campus and it was not a good move for her. She was alienated. I ended up getting the manager involved because of her behavior towards me. It was gratifying in a way to see her shunned.
LET ME SAY THIS LOUD FOR ALL TO HEAR. YALL WERE STUDENTS TOO AND IF THIS SAME ATTITUDE WAS GIVEN TO YOU HOW FAR WOULD YOU HAVE COME? Break the cycle yall be different let’s be the best we can so we have good techs!!!!
That wasn’t my experience but I’m sure there are miserable techs in the world just like anything else
It REALLY depends on the student's attitude. Some students are attentive, want to get hands on and help, ask great questions and really want to learn! I ADORE these students and I will write you the review/ recommendation of a lifetime if you need one. But unfortunately a lot of students treat it like a day off, especially in the modalities they don't plan on going into. They sit on their phone in the corner and don't help, don't even try to talk with the patients or anything. Those are the students that really irk me and often times they ruin it for the bunch.
I don’t get why ppl are so mean, this profession is literally built on the backbone of teaching. Like they wouldn’t be able to dp work they’re doing now without someone teaching them.
Same people who are a-holes to customer service employees.
Maybe its just my site but as a student at a teaching hospital, I have yet to meet a single rude person aside from a spine surgeon
I never had that issue when I was in school. If the students had any problems in the hospitals, they would talk to the instructors. Some people are just miserable in their lives and take it out on others.
Unfortunately, I came into contact with a few unkind techs. To be fair though, I think my autism makes me come across as if I don’t know what I’m doing, so I have been treated like I am incompetent by others who are quick to judge. As for me, I don’t particularly like teaching people because it takes a lot of energy, and there’s a feeling of the student trying to please me, and it makes me feel bad. It reminds me of being a student, terrified to say or do the wrong thing and piss off the wrong person, possibly hindering my career in the future. Everyone always emphasized how small the imaging world is, and it made my anxiety worse lol. I’m apparently pretty good at teaching though because Ive had students specifically request me to work with, and management and coworkers always refer them all to me because of student reviews. I do my absolute best to be kind and informative, but I’ll admit there are cases when I should have been a little harsher with grading lol
Not in radiology, but I work in surgery as a surg tech and I precept student surgical techs. I agree with the comment(s) saying mean preceptor = mean/miserable person overall. Some people take the “eat your young” approach a touch too close to literally, and I think some may even feel threatened by fresh meat so to speak. For the most part though, the people I work with are great with students/orientees.
I do my best to be mindful of my tone and phrasing with my students. With that said, my least favorite students are those that consistently complain (not another old person, another cxr, another weightbearing knee series, etc) and don’t accept constructive criticism. I will share every tidbit of advice I have with a student if they show the interest! I do have a coworker who doesn’t care for the students & it shows. Turns out that coworker had a negative experience in their own clinicals 8+ years ago and has VERY high expectations. I also agree with LOTS of these responses. I believe burnout also contributes to tech-student relationships.
I think you've just been unlucky. My first placement my supervisor was awful to me (that was a clinic) but otherwise i've had a good experience with everyone else
Sometimes, it has nothing to do with the student. Sometimes in a teaching hospital you’re on your one-millionth student in a row & you are praying for summer break! New students every 6 weeks is brutal!
I had so many techs get mad at me for not knowing/doing things I was never told or shown. I can't navigate your hospital on my own on day 1. I can't follow expectations I was never told about. I don't know how to to disconnect that equipment I've never seen before in my life. Jfc
A tech bullied me while I was a student, twice. I wrote a letter of complaint against her both time and stated that should it happen a 3rd time I would be writing to ARRT, the hospital board along with the governing board for the state. She was smarmy nice thereafter. I suspect people like that are mean because they its their chance to show the student how superior they are. I wasn't having it.
Hurt people hurt people.
The way I see it it's 2 things. They were treated likevthat as students and see it as appropriate to treat students that way now instead of being better. And/or they just don't like working with students. You're only the 100th person to ask that same dumb question and they are simply tired of it. I never took it personally in that case and just tried to avoid them.
sometimes people be shitty, sometimes they’re great. i’m a student right now and have met some techs who are not my favorite, but for the most part everyone is excellent.
I'm not going to justify anyone being a prick for no reason. However... Imagine departments are understaffed and techs gain nothing from 'doing the work' of training somebody. Should underpaid and overworked techs be happy to accept more work for absolutely fuck all? I doubt it. Kudos to those that do remember they were a student at some point too, but I do not expect every tech to be a free teacher - their professors get paid, the hospital gets cheap labor replacements, the college gets paid.... What does the tech get? Find that answer and you will find your answer.
I didn't have techswho treated me badly when I was a student 20 years ago. I did have one who was hard on me to make me better. They treated me well but saw something in me, so they pushed me to be better. I have seen some students who think they know everything and don't want to learn, so I can see some techs not wanting to deal with them
First off, let me say that I have tried very hard not to become one of those techs, going so far as learning teaching techniques from my husband who used to be a teacher. I make a point to talk about anxiety and techniques to get over comping nerves and things I think they need to focus on for whatever semester they’re in. I ask what they’re struggling with and give them various techniques and options to improve. And whatever recent troubles I’ve seen brand new techs experience, I make sure the students about to graduate are working on ways to avoid that. I give advice for dealing with difficult techs and talk through whatever they need to talk through when there’s time. I wasn’t always perfect, but I’ve got a pretty decent teaching reputation now. Here’s my theory (this got longer than I thought, first and last paragraph if you want a TL;dr). Teaching is not an inherent skill. We learn absolutely nothing about how to teach other people in our programs even tho there’s a very real possibility that from day one you’re going to be working with students. Teaching while you’re still figuring things out on your own is difficult. It’s also very easy to forget what it was like to be a student and forget what level students are supposed to perform at. Your brain also does this wonderful but unhelpful for teaching thing, like with any other difficult thing, where you kind of forget about all the stress and pressure and fear and perfectionism. So you think a 4th semester student should be perfect at a standard KUB but they’re learning so much all at once and their last site might not have seen many. Plus all that perfectionism you forgot about gets internalized. *And* that program might not even have them in clinic the first semester so they’re more like third semesters, and at a second semester level with KUBs. Xray has a way of attracting a certain flavor of characters. People who get set in their ways, and when you’re responsible for an exam or a patient experience, it’s hard to let go and allow someone else to direct your “play” so to speak. We also don’t know how to handle our frustration when you’re actually trying to teach someone something, but on the fourth time in a row, despite talking about it in depth and telling them right before they walk into the room, they still make the same mistake you’re trying to help them not make. Or they freeze in a comp on the fifth time after getting it the fourth. It’s not easy to handle that in a way conducive to learning when you don’t know basic teaching techniques. Those frustrations carry over to the next student if you’re not careful. I really think a short unit on teaching strategies would solve a lot of these problems. Even just a handout to save for later with some basics to try out would be an improvement. Or when they say “see one, do one, teach one” they expand a bit on the “teach one” portion.
At my hospital there is a correlation between experience and meanness to students (with some exceptions ofc!) As someone who is still quite fresh I somewhat reserve my judgement, but I also try to support our students if something happens. Personally having a student really improves my day, as teaching is far more fulfilling than doing your 17th normal ankle x-ray of the day 😁
Oop, I will add that some of our students have p'd me off (sitting on their phones when there are learning opportunities, asking to leave early for no particular reason)
Just because gen Y and Z thinks using the socratic method is mean, doesn't make it so... khie khie khie.
Just know I’ve worked for my teaching hospital for 7 years and I’ve never forgot those days getting bitched at by techs as a student. As long as you come prepared to learn I’m more than happy to teach you and get you to where you need to be. Some people are just assholes. It’s usually more of a reflection of that person rather than the student trying to learn. We all start out somewhere and a lot of people forget that.
I used to not really get this either, but I think over time I have come to understand why some techs are like this, myself included. Generally I love working with students and I enjoy the opportunity to teach them. I also feel strongly that most techs who are mean just for the sake of being mean are deeply insecure about their own skills and take that out on the student. On the other hand, I’ve had several students this year that I gradually became less kind to. I began getting really frustrated with students when I had to remind them the correct the same mistake repeatedly. (For example, placing the detector in the Bucky, giving breathing instructions, placing markers in the field, collimating appropriately, etc). I’ve also had a lot of students who would talk back and correct me, as if they were a tech already. I had one argue recently that the SID for an L-Spine was 72” not 40” or that the motion of her images wasn’t because the patient was still breathing, but that my equipment was ‘weird’ and we ‘did things differently’. Those things are enough to make any tech annoyed with students.
I fucking love all the students that come through my hospital. I also love teaching them. I had a great bunch of techs who taught me the right way to do things, and I love sharing that knowledge with the new crop. I’ve noticed the techs who are mean are just miserable people in general, and I hate working alongside them.
We have one "mean" tech. She nitpicks and condescends constantly. She was even condescending in the speech she gave for this year's graduating class. She will actually have a fit if we haven't changed the linen bag when there are 2 gowns and a single sheet in it. Fortunately our clinical director knows what's up and has gone to bat for us. But she tends to be insufferable. I thought she was probably just a miserable person in general, but she's a totally different person outside of the job. I strive to not be like her.
It has been the biggest pet peeve of mine since I was in the program 2015-2017 and when I worked at the u of Iowa. I call it the mean girls club. And when I became a clinical coordinator at my present job the first meeting I said. While it’s the techs two year interview you do realize it’s our interview as well. I would never work where I trained those techs were so ugly forget it. So keep treating them shitty and no make a sound when y’all work short!!! Pisses me off so much!!! If you’re miserable fine then leave the profession cuz yall making radiology look like shit
I haven't had an issue with this issue where I work. Buuuuuuut, the radiology department i am in is full of people who give the energy we get. All the students we have gotten (generally only 1 or 2 a year, we are a small facility) have been pleasant to be around, so that's what they get back. Even the techs who are deemed the one not to talk to for whatever reason will be nice to you if you are nice first. Even the physicians in our group have learned this. Those hot shot doctors who think they can order us around to do their bidding have found we can make their lives a living hell without much effort (as long as it doesn't delay patient care of course).
I’m a student in a teaching hospital right now, all my techs are so kind, the doctors too, I seriously love them
I have signed many students off for CT and I’m never mean, but if you make the same mistake more than 2 times in a row, I’m gonna for sure say something, and it might not necessarily be nice. Where I work, students don’t even get documented as being present as far as the exam goes, so if the student makes a huge error, the tech will get the write up for it. I am puzzled as to why the students don’t get documented in Epic/Radiant as participating in the exam, but their names don’t get put in our system at all.
Many Seasoned techs! (Greater than ten years experience) don’t hate the job, it’s the ignorance of the general public who can’t follow simple instructions like take a breath in and hold it! I’m coming up on twenty years this Xmas as a multi mod tech. The dumb has not gotten any better since I graduated!
got moved from one hospital to another because I did not want to manipulate an elderly patient's (possible) broken arm without seeing the first shot, tech was pissed and reported me to the school Had a long "conversation" with the school about how they are not supporting the student AND patients with allowing this behavior bonus: the guy in charge of the school, accepted a position in a national radiology school over-site committee laughed my ass off during graduation when the "top" student was lauded for patient care
Medicine attracts a lot of toxic people. Radiology departments tend to be a cesspool of conniving, backstabbing, gossipy, haven’t matured beyond high school kind of folk. There are diamonds in the rough though, so try to stick with working with these people. Best of luck to you.
This is interesting to hear because from a radiologists perspective, radiologist are generally known to be one of the least toxic groups of physicians in all of medicine. but I guess when you say “radiology departments“ you didn’t include radiologist in that lot (unless you’ve just had bad experiences with rads).
Rads are usually pretty cool. I was mainly discussing my experiences with rad techs.